The world needs to be rid of Nationalism sooner rather than later. The narrative is changing slowly but surely. Our ability to use the internet, aside from obvious propaganda, has made the world smaller yet more interconnected than ever.
Former allows to keep it at sports, lame memes and kitchen. Yet find common ground on internal politics. Even if political narratives divide, there’s still something to unite people. Meanwhile political tribalism seem to be penetrating everything with little chance for something in common.
Maybe if we eliminate states and administrative regions in favour of municipalities only (almost flat hierarchy with just two levels of government: municipality level and EU level), the localized "ethnic" tribes would be a lot weaker.
We don't need to eliminate states. We need to bring down remaining empires masquerading as nation states. Russia shall be divided by separating it's ethnic autonomies, Kaliningrad taken away, Crimea given back to Ukraine. Catalonia and Scotland shall be finally granted independence. Bavarian voices are rather silent nowadays, but why not.
Meanwhile US had plenty of action in this department too.
Amplified or quenched.
Applied in harmless ways like having a favorite musician or sportsball team or in very harmful ways like racism/nationalism/ethnocentrism/sexism.
Without flying the flags you are seen as an outsider.
Not my sense at all.
Over time, people will bond around their exclusion to create a more powerful bloc to assert their rights. It seems to me that the dominant identitarians of the past have largely created the current situation by not following the creed of "live and let live."
Conservatives and the right engage in extreme identity politics, but "identity politics" is most often used as a pejorative against liberals and the left. I wonder why that is. Modern identities probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for historical identification/classification and discrimination.
We just called it "tribalism" in our distant past.
It can never go away. It isn't specific to the US either, it's a part of us as humans. That's the real reason there are no "free" countries. I guarantee, you look closely enough, you'll find the group in that country that is not "free". People just knock the US all the time because the group in our nation that is not "free" is pretty obvious to everyone in the world. But all the other nations are just as bad. I've been to a lot of them, so I can promise you that.
There is not shining example of non-tribalist freedom out there, and only the ready and frequent application of force would ever create such a nation. Even then, it would be against the will of many of that nation's citizens.
Nowhere did I say the U.S. is worse than anywhere else nor did I imply perfection exists or even could exist.
I was responding to someone talking about "the west," and I have a U.S.-centric perspective because that's where I'm from.
It's quite obvious that tribalism will always be a thing (to some extent), but I strongly disagree that tribalism → modern identity politics.
You may believe they are different because your ideology needs for you to believe they are different. But at heart, there is no difference. Using terms like "modern identity politics" just allows you to discuss the topic in academia and polite society. On the streets, when the tiki torches, rifles, and baseball bats come out, it really is just tribalism. Different tribes going at each other precisely because they are each the "other".
> As the nearest existing equivalent I have chosen the word ‘nationalism’…
I know many of us have to go to HR training now and learn about the wonders of diversity, but there's a lot to be said (in nature and history) from shared values and culture.
That's kind of ironic because true diversity of thought is not tolerated.
Grifters can only make money, sell their books/trainings if they keep moving the goal posts.
That's just reality. You can't share values if you tolerate people thinking other values are better.
Culturally also. In the US, back when everyone ate chicken, spoke English, and went to some form of Christian church on Sundays, there was very little cultural diversity tolerated.
Chicken, English, and Church was the culture.
It seems like a toxic, dystopian, totalitarian nightmare to live in a society like that. I want dissent. I want good debate. I want people to be able to call bullshit when it is. I want to bring down people that have posted up themselves to these unproductive positions, dogmatizing their ideology by force and by shame, not by good intent, listening to each other, and seeking truth and fairness.
Culture is "pull", not "push". You want to pull people with empathy, not supress them. No one is forcing people to wear British invented shirts and pants. They are because people choose to over their native dress. It is utilitarian, comfortable and superior.
If only there was a universal catalog of "bullshit" things. Since there isn't, it's common for those out of tune with the majority in one aspect to dislike their opinions being called out as bullshit, subjectively.
Me: Bullshit!
It’s called logic and reasoning.
For the most part however it seems to be destructive.
It's not destructive. At worst, it's less fun for hyper individualistic type of people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_agreements
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion
I am certainly not saying that Russia didn't take advantage of the situation here. But as always the situation is much more complicated than what is typically presented.
Nationalism has its own infamous issues of course and is more of a lesser evil than a good. Bypassing it would be nice but I don't know of any successful cases doing so.